The Rudd Government must seek assurances that the specialisation and the capital intensive nature of Australian Technical Colleges (ATC) are maintained in any hand over to state governments, the Shadow Minister for Employment Participation and Apprenticeships and Training, Andrew Southcott said today.

He said it was essential that the level of specialised training in ATC is maintained because he believed Labor’s plan to address the skill shortage by installing ‘Trade Training Centres’ in secondary schools will spread resources too thinly due to the capital intense nature of vocational education.

“ATC provide a quality vocational education system at the secondary school level with specialised teaching and capital intensive facilities,” Andrew Southcott said. “By contrast, Labor’s policy to install trade training centres in every secondary school across the country will provide no more than an oven or a lathe.

“Labor’s policy will spread government resources too thinly and will not provide the opportunities for schools to specialise in quality technical education.

“It was a mistake by the state governments in the 1980’s to abolish technical high schools. It would now be a mistake to downgrade ATC to the level of a trade training centre.”